Valentino AW13

Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli's Valentino show was such an alluring conflation of elements it was difficult not to be spirited away and totally enchanted by it. That's when fashion is exciting, when you're so drawn into a vision that your head changes entirely for 10 minutes.

The designers took "stereotypical garments, part of the collective culture," intervened and improved them to perfection, with a nod to 60s British style and Carnaby Street on their strong, youthful casting. 

We were taken to a divine world, one where models including #dazedmodelarmy's Alexander Beck stalked their inherited mansion to a noirish soundtrack. Through the Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild's grand salons, with their ornate painted ceilings, chandeliers and parquet floors, the boys wore transparent soled Chelsea boots, ponyskin trenches, military furs, capes and experimental thermoform tailoring (which moulds a suit to the body), realised in Prince of Wales checks and Black Watch tartans.